A Disappointing Date
by rdwest
Summary: Senritsu sees Kurapika for the first time after finding the Sonata of Darkness and restoring her body to its old form. They have an awkward date. One Shot. AU-ish?


**Disclaimer:** Hunter x Hunter ain't mine.

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"Miss? What would you like to order?"

Senritsu looked up at the eager-eyed waitress staring down at her with a notepad resting between her dark fingers.

"I'll wait for my friend to arrive before ordering," she replied.

The waitress raised her thin, brown eyebrows. "You sure you don't want water or somethin' while you wait?"

"I'm sure," she replied, although she wasn't.

The waitress gave her a tight-lipped smile, before flitting over to the next table and repeating her question. _What would you like to order?_ The man at the table ordered a mocha latte with a raspberry scone, and asked for a glass of warm water with lemon and salt to go with it. _That sounds good actually._ Warm water with lemon. But not the salt. She had no clue why anyone would ruin water with salt.

The man glanced over at her, catching her staring, and Senritsu pretended to be scanning the café. She had grown accustomed to getting stares, but the ones she received today were of an entirely different kind as she sat inside Café Au Late, the name she thought might have been an attempt to be punny, but failed miserably in her opinion. She had picked this place because it was more upscale than the average café, but not overly expensive as if she were trying too hard to impress someone.

There were not many things in life that disappointed her, but today, as she stared at the doors to the café and waited for Kurapika to arrive, she felt a nagging sense that she would be disappointed over something. What that something was, she wasn't sure, but she knew it would leave a bitter taste in her mouth _like warm water with lemon and salt._

Her blond-haired companion appeared, wearing a crisp black suit, at the café's front door. His pretty eyes fluttered around the room, passing over her quickly and she felt a spike of embarrassment run through her body, _he doesn't even recognize me._

She waved and called his name when his eyes passed by her again. The look on his face was one of suspicion and confusion.

"Senritsu?" he asked.

She nodded as he crossed the room to stand next to her table.

"Senritsu?" Kurapika repeated.

She smiled. "In the flesh."

"What happened to you?"

The corners of her mouth twitched as she struggled to maintain a grin. "I found the Sonata of Darkness."

She saw cogs turning in his head; he frowned, slightly. "Oh. That's good."

 _That's all you have to say?_ She resisted the urge to throttle him, not that she really wanted to. Of all the people she'd been looking forward to showing her new body too, he was at the very top of the list. In fact, he was the only one on the list. She knew he wouldn't be overly impressed with her new look, _but still..._ Her new body would take some getting used to, and he wasn't making it any easier.

"Yeah. How's the hunt going?" She asked, placing a pale hand on the table. He still worked for Light, but he was very much on the way to carving out a path wholly separate from the Nostrade's. Wholly separate from her too, because she had no intentions of becoming a crime lord. And now that she had found the Sonata, it was barely worth it to even continue working for the Nostrade's.

"Okay," he replied. His eyes flickered to her again. _Like he's looking at a stranger,_ which she supposed was true.

"Is it weird?"

"It's…different," he said. "Sorry, it's just going to take some getting used to. But as long as you're happy."

She nodded. "Oh, I am. I'm very happy."

An awkward silence fell between them. Some of it, no doubt, a result of not seeing each other for so long. The other of it, she was certain, had to do with the way she looked. Senritsu had never been pretty, she had never been tall and thin either. She has always been short, frumpy, and unattractive.

But then she thought Kurapika had never been overly chatty even on his best days, and he was probably busy too, with this and that.

 _Still,_ she felt disappointed. "You should sit."

"Yeah." He pulled out the chair and sat in it. "So how did you find it?"

The waitress came by and took his order. He got coffee, black, and nothing else. Senritsu's eyebrows went up in amusement and she couldn't help but notice how much friendlier the waitress was towards him, the way she batted her glittery purple eyelids in his direction. Then she turned to Senritsu with a dull expression and took her order.

"I had a friend's help," she said once the waitress was gone, unsure of how much she wanted to reveal about the ordeal. But the she decided to tell him the truth. Mostly. That she had enlisted the aid of an old friend and they had discovered the Sonata in a copy of Greed Island. The friend wasn't someone he knew, so that part didn't matter, and he seemed rather incredulous that a video game was housing one of the most dangerous and rare pieces of music in the world, but he didn't press her for more answers. And he didn't ask how she restored her body to its original form, which was for the better because Senritsu didn't quite understand how it happened either.

The waitress came by with their order, and then Kurapika told Senritsu how he was fairing in his search for the Scarlet Eyes. _Okay, all things considered._ Conversation between them seemed hard, and it wasn't because she wasn't trying. But it also wasn't because he wasn't trying. It was hard to tell why thing were so awkward and she decided to dip out before he did, because maybe she could save face if she left first. She waved the waiter over for the check.

"I have to go," she said, dropping some money on the table for a tip and sliding out of the chair. "Sorry to cut things short, but it was good seeing you."

"No problem." He stood up. She watched him smooth his collar down. "Let me walk you out."

She nodded. "Maybe we can see each other again? If we have the time," she said. "Life's kind of slow for me right now. Not much to do."

"I heard something about an expedition to the Dark Continent. Sounds like Leorio might be going, and I may be going as well."

She shot him a knowing look. "Scarlet Eyes?"

"You got me."

"Oh. Well, maybe I should go too." Though having just got back from an extremely long adventure, she didn't feel like going. He pulled open the door for her, which made her pause for a secondly, awkwardly, before exiting. "Thanks."

The sidewalk was cluttered with people hurrying by, so she pressed her back against the building.

"You look... so different," Kurapika said. "Sorry if I'm acting weird."

She smiled. "I hope you meant that as a compliment?"

"Yeah, it's just weird talking to you because you sound and act like Senritsu, but you don't look like her."

There it was. Disappointment. She managed to keep a smile on her face nonetheless and nod. "Well, yeah I guess not. It's gonna take some getting used to, but I'll adjust."

"Same here," he replied. "I'll see you around?"

"Sure."

He turned away from her, heading somewhere, _towards his car maybe,_ and then he was gone.

 _Well that was disappointing._ With a sigh, she headed back to the hotel she was staying at. It was maybe a ten or fifteen minute walk from the café, but it seemed to take longer as her mind went over her coffee "date". _I should've at least warned him I looked different._ Maybe that was it; Kurapika liked planning, he didn't like surprises, and he probably didn't plan on meeting a Senritsu who wasn't really Senritsu anymore.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket as her feet padded into the hotel's lobby. _Kurapika?_ She answered it so fast she nearly dropped her phone.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hey. Just wanted to say sorry again. It's just, I probably came off as rude and it's not you. My head's been somewhere else today."

"Being a criminal is stressful, so I understand."

He let out a breathy laugh. "Yeah. We should try again, sometime."

"We should, if you're in this area, or just in the same area as me," she replied, ignoring the look the man at the reception desk sent her as she walked by and hurried into the elevator. She pressed the button to close the door. "You're probably leaving soon and I don't think I'm coming with you."

"How about tomorrow then?"

"So soon?" She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

"I have some things to do—"

She nodded, stupidly to herself. "Tomorrow sounds great! Sorry. Uh real food or coffee?"

"How about a restaurant? I'll look one up and text you the time and place."

"Okay. That sounds fun," she said, unable to stop the stupid smile that spread across her face. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye."

She stared at her phone long, still grinning, as the elevator door dinged and opened. Her new body would take some getting used to, but maybe there were a few perks to it after all.


End file.
